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I'm going to start off by saying that under no circumstances do I consider Fox News a credible news outlet. I would no more expect them to be an unbiased moral compass than the Jerry Springer. Lets face it people, arguments and scaring the crap out of parents sells ad space. Plain and simple, Fox News is all about sensationalism and fanning the flames of terror, not bring you the facts.

Misrepresentation of Mass Effect is a hot ticket, and when some blogger out there said it contains illicit "full digital nudity" and a sex sequence that objectifies women, you best be betting that some so called "news" outlets are chomping at the bit to spoon feed this to the masses. Fox News is of course one of the first major outlets to jump on this band wagon.

Their presentation starts off reasonable enough, it's a one on one with Cooper Lawrence (psychologist) (who admitedly has never played Mass Effect) and Geoff Keighley (Spike TV game guy).

MacCallum: …a new role-playing video game that is leaving NOTHING to the imagination… in some parts of this, you’ll see full digital nudity. Imagine! And the ability for the players to engage in graphic sex and the person who’s playing the game gets to decide exactly what’s going to happen between the two people, if you know what I mean… Basically, Pandora’s Box is open. I mean, kids have access to these things… How damaging is it, really?

Lawrence: …the damage is this. We know that all the research shows that violence has a desensitizing effect. Well, sexuality does too… Here’s how they’re seeing women. They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.

Keighley: That’s completely incorrect… first of all you can actually play as a man or a woman in the game. Cooper, have you ever played Mass Effect?

Lawrence: (giggling) No…

Keighley: …you mentioned it has full graphical nudity, that’s completely incorrect. There’s no full nudity… there’s the side of an alien boob… it’s a small sexual situation in this game which is about two minutes out of a thirty-plus hour experience… you can actually play through this game without the sexual situation ever happening -

It is really all just downhill from there. She proceeds to say the game targets children and that you don't see many adults playing video games. Don't even get me started on the panel. Who hires a panel of people who all have the same opinion?

In all honesty, (while my views are a bit skewed) the number of adults that I see playing video games grossly outweighs the number of children. Also, Mass Effect has one of the most in depth story lines I've ever seen, and to actually get the sex scene you have to develop a positive relationship with your female companion. Frankly, if a child is capable of understanding the subtleties of how to seduce a woman and navigating the potentially tedious story, the fact that they are seeing a naked butt and some side-boob is the least of your worries.

10 Comments

CerberusTheHitman said:

Unbiased? Everyone except Geoff thought videogames are satanic. And Geoff wasnt allowed to speak. I saw he wanted to say something intelligent, but the bitch he was arguing against just kept calling him a liar and that he was full of shit. *shrugs* Whatever though. No respectable american watches Fox news anyways. FOX News was created for the ignorant morons who don't know crap about anything, and who believe what FOX says because its what they want to hear.

I think you already answered that question when you pointed out that this was on Fox News.

By the way that quack therapist was completely talking out of her ass. The "research" on video game violence and sexuality has always garnered mixed results. And a competent therapist wouldn't come off as such a man-hating bitch. Did you hear the way she talked down to the Spike TV guy like he was an immature moron? And she only stopped short of characterizing all teenage boys as sex offenders.

But like you said, it's Fox News, it's to be expected.

Oh and I love how reluctant the reporter is at the end to come to the conclusion that parents should monitor their kids. Oh, it's so hard. Cry cry.

Yeah, being a parent is hard. Suck it up. Or do the world a favor and don't have kids if you can't handle it.

isn't it funny how they cite sci-fi FPS games for violence, but there was no controversy over COD 4, which is so realistic and parallels our own war in the middle east. I think COD is a an excellent game, but I thought that it was way more violent and disturbing than any other FPS out there just for the fact how close it is to real life.

I am guessing if they start criticizing COD 4, they would eventually start criticizing the war in the middle east, which is againt their nature i think.

It is a Mature rated game so children should not be playing it. However the panel clearly still thinks children are the only people to play video games.

It infuriates me that they debate something that they have no knowledge about. I wouldn't be so angry if one of them played through the game and then ratted on it, but they haven't even seen the title screen.

It's sad that fox news always does this to people. they bring them on to get both sides then cut off one or the other to get what they want. Mass effect is a great game and no one should say anything against it till they have played it. as for America... ...Wake up !!!!start paying attention to you children and stop being fat,lazy, uninformed, fox news watching haters.

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